losing gracefully & defeating cynicism

“i didn’t vote for him, but he’s my president, and i hope he does a good job”. i believe these were the words of john wayne after the election of president kennedy. it is a farfetched hope to think that you might hear something like that coming out of a mccain supporter’s mouth today.

what I witnessed today was extremely indicative of the political atmosphere we live in. for eight years we have been dealing with the bush idiocracy, which has been an eternity for those of us who haven’t supported him from the beginning. it has had a particularly strong effect on young voters, say those under the age of 24, who probably don’t remember the political climate of any president before bush. to them this is just the way politics are.

the horrible blunders, the propaganda, and the partisan fighting during the bush administration have resulted in extreme political cynicism on both sides of the fence. i suspect that had mccain won the race that obama supporters would be angry and dejected; taking a hard fall from the heights that hope had lifted them up to. however, i will go out on a limb and say that the elation that obama supporters felt when his victory was announced could never have been equaled by mccain supporters had he won.

reading facebook comments, notes and status updates showed me how deeply cynical, hateful, and ignorant some people are. many people declairing that they are leaving the country, or obama is going to run america into the ground, and it’s the beginning of the end.

we have turned into an all-or-nothing kind of country. you are either a far-left ultra-liberal, or you are a right-wing nutjob. and it seems that the only way to regard political candidates is either that the one you support is the ultimate patriot, carrying our flag riddled with bullet holes directly to the enemy’s doorstep and then beating them to within an inch of their lives with the flagpole, or the one you don’t support spends their time sitting in dark, smoky rooms plotting the downfall of our nation.

this just doesn’t make any damn sense. all of our candidates, even ralph nader, are men who love their country. i may not have supported john mccain, but i would never question his love for his country – although i have my doubts about sarah palin and her evil cyborg husband. look for him playing a machine on the sarah connor chronicles later this winter.

we have to move beyond the deep cynicism that the bush administration has gifted us with and learn to support our president and hope he does a good job, even if we didn’t vote for him. not just in this election, but in every election, do we have to consider the future of our country. this isn’t college football rivalries, or counter strike matches, it is the future of our nation, and we must move forward with the hope that all of our elected officials will do the best job they can, even if we didn’t vote for them.

and then watch with glee on the daily show when the sex scandals are revealed.

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